This is going to be like half an entry.

Because I'm meeting Eddie (and probably other Americans, but I wouldn't know because they aren't RESPONDING TO MY TEXT MESSAGES) for dinner at Tex-Mex (this is not actually the name of the restaurant, it's a Mexican restaurant with tex-mex, but we simply refer to it as tex-mex. This was, in fact, not such a great idea because when my host sister asked where I was going, I was unable to answer. I told her I was going to "tex-mex", not far away from the history department (I don't know how I was planning on getting there without actually knowing the name or where it was located, I figured I'd get somewhere relatively close and then call Eddie). But when I said it was a restaurant with Mexican food, she knew exactly where it was located. I guess it's the only one in Irkutsk? Anyway, I was fairly impressed, and this thought was way too much for parentheses.)

So after our trip we went to class, that sucked. But later that night Zhenia called me (these are the parts I wonder about-do I write about this in a blog? Why not.) and we talked for a little while. This was, in fact, a short while, as he quickly caught on to my inablity to communicate in Russian by telephone. So he asked if I wanted to do something Thursday and then told me he'd call me later. So the next day I'm in Cafe Fiesta with Sonya when he calls. And he's, like, three buildings away, so he comes to find me. I, not knowing what to do (I guess you're not supposed to be hanging out with your recent tour guide on the group trip? I'm fairly positive Elisabeth would NOT be thrilled, but it's not sketchy like a student-professor relationship. I guess it just felt like something I should not be doing), decide to be an incredibly sketchy person and just tell her that i'm going home (I was supposed to borrow her computer to use the internet), and then I just tell her what's going on. She laughs at me. I laugh at me. 5 mins later Zhenia and I come into Cafe Fiesta and ask to use her computer. Zhenia then saves like 600 photos from our trip onto her flash drive (this part was difficult to explain to Elisabeth. She's making us a disc of all the photos from our trip, so asked us to give her photos. On sonya's flash drive were my pictures, her pictures...and Zhenia's pictures. We just told her that we ran into him at Cafe Fiesta. I'm not really sure she believed us, but whatever). So we walk around Irkutsk for awhile, through downtown and along the Angara, which was very nice. (Walking around with no particular direction (the verb gulyat) I guess is the Russian version of our going to coffee shops or out for ice cream. It's a very popular thing to do). And then later we went to this little cafe near where I live and had borsht. I felt very Russian. Anyway he, Sasha, and Sergei left for Olhon the next day to go build something (not really sure). We (American students) might go bar hopping or clubbing with them, as having them around would be a) fun and b) make us feel safer.

Then that weekend I hibernated in the apartment (we know why). Actually, that's a lie. On Saturday I walked around in the very cold weather by myself for like 2 hours, which was actually sort of a good way to clear my head. Then on Sunday Sonya came over for tea and lunch, and then we hung out at Cafe Fiesta waiting for Igor to call (who never called, and is sketchy to the nth degree).

Okay I have to meet Eddie. More later.